President William Ruto has directed the government to prepare for the rollout of a national school meals programme covering learners across all 47 counties from the first term of 2027.
The programme is expected to support learners in lower primary, upper primary and junior secondary schools, with the government positioning school feeding as part of its broader social protection strategy for vulnerable households.
The President made the announcement on Tuesday in a speech delivered on his behalf by Labour and Social Protection Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua during the Fourth Kenya Social Protection Conference at the Kenya School of Government in Kabete, Nairobi.
Ruto said the country’s existing school feeding initiatives had been fragmented, limiting their ability to achieve the scale and sustainability required to meet national objectives.
He directed the Ministry of Education to work with the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, the National Treasury and other stakeholders to establish the policy, financing, governance and implementation arrangements needed for the national programme.
The government has not yet clarified whether every school in the country will be covered when the programme begins.
The announcement comes shortly after Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale said Kenya intends to increase the number of learners benefiting from school meals from about 2.6 million currently to 10 million by 2030.
Duale made the remarks in New York while representing President Ruto at a high-level meeting on child survival and nutrition.
The 10-million-learner target was first announced by the government in 2024. However, the latest announcement provides a specific timeframe for beginning a nationwide rollout.
At present, government-supported school meals primarily target vulnerable learners, including children in arid and semi-arid regions and communities experiencing food insecurity.
An analysis by the Institute of Public Finance estimates that providing meals to 10 million learners at an indicative cost of Sh20 per child per school day, over 200 school days, would cost approximately Sh40 billion annually.
Kenya has also been advancing a home-grown school meals approach, under which schools can source food from local farmers. The model is intended to connect school feeding with local agricultural production while creating markets for farmers.
The President also announced plans to establish and capitalise a Social Protection Fund to provide more predictable support to vulnerable households.
Ruto said the country needs a social protection system capable of helping families withstand poverty, disability, old age and climate-related shocks.
He further committed the government to expanding coverage under the Inua Jamii programme to 2.5 million households.
Principal Secretary for Social Protection Joseph Motari said the government is currently providing Sh3.5 billion each month to vulnerable Kenyans through the programme.
According to Motari, the number of Inua Jamii beneficiaries has increased from 1.2 million to 1.7 million, representing an additional 500,000 beneficiaries. The government has set a target of reaching 2.5 million people.
He also said the government had shifted payments from commercial banks to mobile money platforms, particularly M-Pesa, in an effort to make the transfers faster and more accessible.
Mutua defended the government’s handling of Inua Jamii payments, saying President Ruto had directed that beneficiaries should receive their funds before senior government officials receive their salaries.
The three-day Kenya Social Protection Conference runs from September 29 to October 1 and has brought together about 500 participants from government, development agencies and other organisations.
The conference is being held under the theme, “Re-imagining Social Protection in an Evolving Socio-Economic Landscape and Climate Change: Strengthening Adaptive, Transformative and Sustainable Social Protection Systems for Inclusive Development in Kenya.”
